What once felt like risk has shifted to responsibility — to keep going, to keep choosing growth, and to trust the path unfolding beneath my feet.

This year gave me contrast — beauty and truth, softness and strength — and every bit of it poured back into who I am as a woman, a creative and heart behind Cealle Creative.

I couldn’t help but think of my grandmother, who once told me, “I used to pick over one hundred pounds of cotton a day. I would pick as much as the mens would.” Her words have stayed with me.

The room was alive with the glow of women—mothers, daughters, sisters, friends—radiating in every shade of walnut, pecan, cinnamon, toffee, and vanilla. It was a gathering where I could look around and see reflections of myself, my mother, my aunt, my cousin, my sister.